1. Field of Invention
A monitoring system for health care workers or other workers where sanitary hand-washing is required, to detect the sanitary cleaning of hands upon entry and exit of a required or designated clean area includes a plurality of individual radio frequency identification device (RFID) devices located within the uniforms or employee ID badges assigned to each employee, a central monitoring network comprising a plurality of proximity sensors located at each room entry, the soap dispenser and the sink, the patient or object where sanitary handling is required, and a central processing unit (CPU). Each individual RFID device, when within the set range of each proximity sensor, sends a signal to the central monitoring device corresponding to the assigned employee, which in turn, relays the signal to the CPU in real time, for a time relative log of the employees activity to monitor whether the employee has washed their hands as required by law or policy.
2. Description of Prior Art
The following United States patents were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. Some prior art relates to hand sanitation devices, but the majority of the disclosed prior art is relative to the field of RFID devices.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,600 to Davis, an aerosol spray of disinfectant is attached to a door to spray a dye stain on the restroom user's hand when the door handle is opened. Soap and water is required to remove the stain on the user's hand, and likely anything else that gets sprayed with the annoying dye.
RFID technology is well-known in the prior art, especially as used in tracking people and objects. A garment tracking system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,181 to Quartararo, Jr. which imbeds an RFID device in garment buttons or within the garment itself. Name badges or ID badges contain the RFID tracking devices attached to people in U.S. Pat. No. 6,933,849 to Sawyer and RE37,531 to Chaco, which involve the monitoring of people within a workplace or objects to track the whereabouts of the people or objects for security reasons, employing multiple sensors to track the location.
Monitoring of persons within a location to track the entry into a room or within the proximity of a dangerous appliance used in the home health care industry is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,331 to Anderson. It does not specifically disclose RFID technology, but photo-sensors are employed as well as other “sensor means”. Proximity sensors using RFID technology are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,150,948 to Watkins, disclosing a stationary reader and a plurality of tags which are read when in the presence of the reader. This passive RFID technology becomes active when the tagged item is found within the sensory field and appears to be closely related to inventory security to create an active signal when an object is placed within the sensory field, as would be the case if an item is being shoplifted.
The present RFID system is ideally tailored for the health service industry and is primarily concerned with monitoring hand-washing with soap for sterile environment handling safety in an attempt to reduce transmittal and transfer of disease from infected patients to other patients, medical equipment or sterile areas caused by lack of sanitary cleansing after contact and upon entry onto a sterile area. The RFID transmitting device is placed upon an employee or guest with multiple primary RFID detection devices located on all the entries to each individual sterile area, which are triggered upon entry by the employee or guest, sending a wireless signal to the RFID receiving device located within each entry and the sterile target area. Secondary RFID detection devices are located in the proximity of each of the soap dispensers and sinks to detect the proximity of the employee or guest within the proximity of the soap dispenser and sink, these secondary RFID detection devices sending a signal to the RFID receiving device. When the employee or monitored guest fails to activate the required secondary RFID detection devices within a programmed time of detection after entry or prior to exiting the room or area, an alert is sent to a central monitoring station with information that the corresponding employee or monitored guest has failed to exercise proper hand cleansing in that particular area.
This system may also be applied to any industry or in manufacturing plants which utilize clean-room technology or required sanitary hand-cleansing to prevent risk of contamination or spread of disease or germs.